


A More Perfect Union

by Jantique



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 6-26-15, Fluff, Gay Marriage, M/M, Marriage Proposal, SCOTUS, phlint - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-26
Updated: 2015-06-26
Packaged: 2018-04-06 08:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4214340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jantique/pseuds/Jantique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Friday, 6/26/15</p><p>By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that "The right of same-sex couples to marry that is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment is derived, too, from that Amendment's guarantee of the equal protection of the laws."</p><p>And the After-party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A More Perfect Union

**Author's Note:**

> I’m not there. I can only imagine. Today is a great day to celebrate. Tomorrow, we go back to work.

Friday, 6/26/15

By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court of the United States had ruled that "No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than they once were."  
"Their hope is not to be condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilization's oldest institutions. They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right."

"The right of same-sex couples to marry that is part of the liberty promised by the Fourteenth Amendment is derived, too, from that Amendment's guarantee of the equal protection of the laws."

People cheered and celebrated across the U. S. Manhattan _was_ the party, albeit rather more dancing in the streets the closer you got to Stonewall, and rather less so the closer you got to the Upper East Side, where they held tasteful, sedate(d) cocktail parties to celebrate the occasion.

Down in the Village, though, the crowd was huge, boisterous and jubilant, comprising as it did people of every stripe and fancy, be they a-, mono-, demi-, bi-sexual, gay, lesbian, queer, straight, transgender and everything else—just PEOPLE—celebrating Freedom, Justice and, FINALLY, the Right to Marry. Not _special_ rights, but equal rights, that was all anyone wanted.

The cops were on hand, of course, but as long as there was no violence and no obvious drugs, they stayed out of it. A far cry indeed from 46 years ago, almost to the day, when the first gays _fought back_ against a police raid and sparked the Stonewall Riots.

At a bar at the edge of the Village, a man in a rumpled suit, his tie loose but still fastened around his neck, carefully made his way inside. He gradually slid through the crowd until he reached the main light switch for the overheads. No one noticed as he quickly flicked it down and up three times.

When the lights flickered, most people grumbled. The Avengers immediately went on alert. The man smiled and waited until one particular blue-gray gaze spotted him. Then Clint leapt over the crowd, vaulting off someone’s back into a somersault, landing on his feet in front of Phil. He smiled.

“Hi.” He mouthed and signed. He’d taken out his hearing aids—talking was useless in this noisy crowd anyway. _“Come here often? By the way, you look like shit.”_

Phil smiled back and sighed. _“Traveling 18 hours,”_ he signed back. _“Not too late, am I?”_

Clint grinned and shook his head. _“No, you’re right on time.”_

Phil looked at the floor, regretted it, looked at his pants and thought, ‘What the hell.’ He got down on one knee and took Clint’s hands, and said and signed,

_“Will you marry me?”_

Clint—with a grin splitting his face in two—said, _“Yes, yes and HELL YES!”_

They had gathered a little crowd by this time, and people cheered. As Clint pulled Phil to his feet, one partier (not an Avenger, who would have known better), said, “Hey, man, that’s beautiful. But you know, you could’ve got married in New York for _years_ already."

Phil replied, “Clint knows I thought that it would be immoral for us to get married until everyone could.”

Clint (who _knew_ Phil, he knew what he was saying) said, “Yeah, and I agree.” He could have bitched about it, but he hadn’t. He admired Phil’s principles. The fact that they were, at times, _extremely inconvenient_ \--hell. It was what made Phil, Phil. The man he loved. The man he was FINALLY going to marry.

Someone yelled, "Hey, kiss him!" So they did.

Another rousing cheer. Tony (over by the bar) raised his voice and said, “Hey, everybody, I’m Tony Stark. I’ll give you double whatever you get from the media for exclusive video or pictures of the proposal!” A dozen or so people grabbed their phones and started looking through whatever dreck they might have captured. The really smart ones started calling TMZ—the first ones on the air always got more. Not that they were sure who these guys _were_ , but if Stark was interested….

The party swirled on around them. All around the country, people were celebrating. Victory at last. Somewhere in the country, a gay teen was being taunted, a lesbian was repudiated by her family, a transgender person was being beaten. It was NOT the end, happily ever after. But it was a damn fine start.

 

Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. Winston Churchill

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP. Winston Churchill

**Author's Note:**

> The “Village” is Greenwich Village. Only a tourist would specify. The Stonewall Inn has been granted landmark status by New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission.


End file.
